LibriVox recording of Oscar Wilde: His Life and Confessions, by Frank Harris. Read by Martin Geeson.

Consumers of biography are familiar with the division between memoirs of the living or recently dead written by those who "knew" the subject more or less intimately, and the more objective or scholarly accounts produced by later generations.

In the case of Wilde, as presented to us by Frank Harris, we are in a way doubly estranged from the subject. We meet with Oscar the charismatic talker, whose tone of voice can never be reproduced – even if a more scrupulous biographer had set down his words accurately – and we are perhaps already aware of him as Wilde the self-destructive celebrity who uneasily fills the place of the premier gay icon and martyr in our contemporary view.

Neither of these images will do. We need to read as many accounts as possible. Harris, though himself a self-advertising literary and sexual buccaneer, takes a wincingly representative view of Wilde’s homophile activity: for him it is a patrician excrescence, the abominable vice of the few, contracted at English boarding schools – though thankfully “not infectious” as far as he himself is concerned.

What a long road we have to travel to arrive at the essentially gay man of today! But there are many shortcuts to take us back to where we came from… (Summary by Martin Geeson)

M4B audiobook of complete book

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This audio is part of the collection: The LibriVox Free Audiobook Collection
It also belongs to collections: Audio Books & Poetry; Community Audio

Artist/Composer: Frank Harris
Date: 2009-08-06
Source: Librivox recording of a public-domain text
Keywords: biography; oscar wilde; wilde; audiobook; homosexuality; literature; bosie; queensberry; gaol; jail; gay

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: samantha12 - - January 11, 2010
Subject: Frank Biography !
Top marks to the reader! I've been listening to these as I do my artwork.

Reviewer: wagstaff - - August 15, 2009
Subject: Highest Marks for the Reader.
The reader serves up a wonderful reading of this interesting history.